Mar/100
Hankook Camaro at WSIR
Feb/100
Wekfest 2010
San Francisco, CA - I headed over to SF today to check out Wekfest, the huge car show in the Japan Center parking garage. I missed last year's show, so this was the first one I'd been to since JDM Theory was still hosting the show. Wekfest was allowing non-Japanese cars in the show, so there were a few domestics and Euros in attendance, though Japanese cars were still a big majority.
The first car I stopped to see was this lime green '74 TE27 Corolla owned by Joey Gauthier of Performance Options in Oakland. The car caught on fire last week, so Joey had to scramble to get the left quarter panel painted before the new graphics could go on, and then he got the rear window done just 4 hours before he had to have the car in the garage. Talk about cutting it close!
Next I stopped to see this silver S13 owned by Josh Chang. I hadn't seen Josh in several years so I was surprised to see him there with a car. Under the hood is an LS2 complete with hot pink fuel rail covers. It goes well with the rainbow flake in the paint that you can't really see in the picture. Josh is planning to take this car to Vegas ProAm for a shot at a Formula DRIFT license.
Calvin Wan had his S14 on display, promoting his new Drift Sumi-E app for the iPhone. Calvin wasn't around so I didn't get to talk to him about the car, but it pretty much speaks for itself!
I stumbled upon this old Mini Cooper, very proudly wearing its 13" shoes. The paint was super nice too!
And then it was time to leave. I've always loved the view from the bridge over Geary. Too bad that Toyota semi was there for most of the day. Oh well, there's always next year!
Feb/100
Hankook Camaro testing
Feb/100
ThunderDrift ProAm Round 1
Willows, CA - From its humble beginnings in 2006, ThunderDrift has grown and adapted, holding a wide range of events to suit the needs of as many drivers as possible. From traditional trackdays to 2009's skidpad competition series, TD organizer Geoff Pitts has established Thunderhill as the place to come for drifting in Northern California.
Now it's 2010, and the ThunderDrift 4-round competition series on the big track is a Formula DRIFT ProAm affiliate series, with 2011 pro licenses and invites to the 2010 ProAm finals at stake.
Colin Frost drove up from Anaheim to team up with former Formula DRIFT driver Todd Ho, who came back from China, and local drifter and sometime ProAm competetor Richard Kong to judge Round 1 of the series, which was held on turns 13-10 on the back section of the track. Most of the drivers had a ton of experience running the track the right direction, but running it backwards proved to be a bit challenging. During practice, #18 Joshua Sher found out the hard way why you shouldn't run wide on Turn 10, when he tried to drive up the side of the hill, grenading his new body kit in the process. Luckily he hadn't painted it yet. #16 Ryan Kado must not have been paying attention to that though, because in the Top 4, after #31 Virgil Brosseau spun out in Turn 12, Kado went crazy and tried the same hillclimbing trick as Sher, with much worse results: he rolled his car onto its roof while it was about 8 feet up the grassy slope. Kado emerged unharmed but the car did not fare as well.
The rollover gave #77 Julian Jacobs the win, with Kado taking home second place and #66 Andy Gillespie taking third. Brosseau and #17 Luke Lonberger grabbed points for 4th and 5th place respectively.
